Search - Spanky & Our Gang :: The Best of Spanky & Our Gang: 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection

A Good Sampler From An Underrated Group

Boomertunes | Illinois USA | 12/23/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As harmony groups go, Spanky and Our Gang was quite a combination of talent. All six members contributed vocals to a blend of pop, rock, folk, country, blues, and jazz material. The hits included here were mostly upbeat sunshiny tunes that sounded great on 60's AM radio. Because of their smooth crossover sound and considerable comedic skills, Spanky and Our Gang were featured on many television variety shows of the day.

As is the case with most collections in the "20th Century Masters Millennium Collection" series, the "Spanky and Our Gang Best Of" is an economic sampler for someone wanting the basics of the group's recorded work. Arranged in chronological order of chart appearance, the three biggies are here: "Sunday Will Never Be The Same", "Lazy Day", and "Like To Get To Know You", as well as lesser hits "Sunday Mornin'", "Making Every Minute Count" and "Yesterday's Rain". Don't overlook the wonderful "Give a Damn", a subtle beauty of vocal work and production that was used to promote the cause of the Urban Coalition League in New York City. The first cover of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'" is here also-when the Gang recorded it before Nilsson, they knew it as "Echoes" and gave it the full harmony treatment.

Of the ten tunes featured, three are from the debut LP, three from "Like To Get To Know You", and four from the "Anything You Choose" disc. If you want more than the hits, you'll have to explore more of the catalog on LP or Japanese import CDs.

Unfortunately for Spanky and Our Gang, their music was so vocally and instrumentally intricate that most cover groups can't reproduce their sound. Because of that, you don't hear these hits performed very often by others. As a result, they aren't remembered as much as they should be. Too bad, because Spanky and Our Gang were truly one of the more talented and sophisticated groups of the era.

"

Typical 1960s recording.

Robert C. Froyd | PA USA | 06/13/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"As I said in the review title, "Typical 1960s recording" dubbed to CD format. Just getting old memories collected."